Preview of Lost Planet 3 from Capcom

I recently got to play some Lost Planet 3, both single player and multiplayer, and here is my preview.

Lost Planet 3 introduces Jim, a rig pilot who leaves Earth to take on a hazardous but lucrative contract on E.D.N. III. Working for Neo-Venus Construction (NEVEC) who are preparing the planet for colonization, Jim joins his fellow pioneers at the Coronis base and begins surveying the uncharted terrain and obtaining samples of the planet's energy supply - Thermal Energy.

With NEVEC's existing Thermal Energy reserve running low the fate of the Coronis mission depends on the natural source of the energy supply being located. Realizing that this is a great opportunity for a huge pay-off and early ticket home to his family, Jim braves the risk of the treacherous environment and threat of the indigenous Akrid. Acting as a home away from home and boasting an array of tools that can assist Jim on the field, the utility rig provides Jim's safety and is essential for not only his contract work but also his protection against the ever-changing climate.

Lost Planet 3 is being developed by Spark Unlimited, a studio best known for its first-person shooters like Legendary and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty rather than being developed in house by Capcom.

Single Player

The single player campaign starts when Jim first arrives on E.D.N. III. He hasn't exactly arrived smoothly. The first few minutes act both as a mini tutorial and also as an introduction to the planet and some of the characters.

From then on its a case of working your way to the base, meeting various people and then getting your rig and going out. The more dangerous the mission, the more money you make. Moving in the rig can be slow, as you would expect from a rig, and so a little patience is required. For the most part you are outside of the rig, especially later in the game when you activate a new feature called Platform Mode. What this does is convert your rig into a mobile platform that collect T Energy.

During these platform missions, the rig is vulnerable to attack and your mission is to both protect the rig, repair it when necessary and fight off the hordes of akrids that what to both kill you and destroy the rig.

You can accelerate the repairs on your rig using the the thumb sticks on the controller, and while its fairly simple, it takes a little getting used it.

Something more sinister is going on around E.D.N. III, so expect the story to unfold, after all, you are replacing a character called Diaz who disappeared after both complaining about NEVEC and talking about conspiracy theories.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer modes we had the opportunity to play were Akrid Survival mode and Scenario mode, along with a few different maps.

Scenario mode had one team attacking the other teams base, where as Akrid Survival mode had the teams trying to survive wave after wave of Akrids. Check out the interview with Andrew later on for a better description.

If you want to see multiplayer in action for yourself, check out these videos which contain new footage captured at the event:

I enjoyed playing both the single and multiplayer modes. For single player, it look a little while to get into, but once the action kicked off there was no stopping it. The facial expressions on the various characters are done really well, as are the graphics in the game.

The music fits really well, adding a dark and scary atmosphere to an already dark and scary planet!

During the game you also receive video messages from your wife Grace, and these are a nice little touch that serves to remind you just what Jim is actually doing there.

Multiplayer is a lot of fun, although I can see it becoming a little repetitive, although to be fair we only got to play a small part of it, and I did really enjoy it. Also it does help to play with a team who understand the meaning of teamwork!

All in all I look forward to playing more Lost Planet 3 when it's released.

And don't forgot to check out my interview with Andrew Szymanski who is the producer of Lost Planet 3:

Lost Planet 3 will be released August 30th on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.